


Draugr and Drama

by griffonsnotincluded



Category: Journey into Mystery, Loki: Agent of Asgard, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Thor (Comics), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Family, Family Fluff, Friendship, but only because it's impossible for the Odin-children to NOT be dramatic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-04 13:50:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14021646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/griffonsnotincluded/pseuds/griffonsnotincluded
Summary: Thor promised Loki he'd play DnD with him. Unfortunately, it wasn't THIS Loki.





	1. Part 1: Favors and Friendship

This current predicament was all the Boy’s fault, of that Loki was completely certain.

He had watched the Boy, all bright eyes and embarrassing eagerness, scamper after Thor, internally sighing at the way the child practically tripped on the once-and-future-king’s cape in the process. This was no way for a Loki to behave. Fluttering down to land on Thor’s armored shoulder where he could more easily shoot the Boy as much of a smirk as his beak allowed, Ikol earned himself a scowl before the Boy trotted in front of his (their?) brother.

“Thor, wait, Thor!”

Thor slowed as the Boy began to backpedal in front of him but did not stop his trek toward the edge of the city. “What have you done now?”

The Boy narrowed his eyes as the bird on Thor’s shoulder hopped around to face him once more, but the glare vanished before Thor could notice. “Nothing, I--I just thought we could...you said that maybe today we could play--”

Ikol began to preen himself as Thor’s mouth twitched in a guilty frown. “Ah. Right.”

“Thor! If you move any slower we will leave without you!”

Sif’s voice echoed from the end of the hall, and the Boy glanced over his shoulder to see the warrior beckoning his brother forward.

“Oh.”

“Maybe next time,” said Thor, clasping the Boy’s shoulder as he passed but not looking back even as he called, “Why don’t you ask someone else to play?”

Ikol fluttered from Thor’s shoulder to land on a ledge next to the Boy. He remembered taking pleasure in the poorly concealed hurt in the Boy’s expression, in the way disappointment clouded those innocent features and made his narrow shoulders crumple inward.

“Right,” said the Boy, spinning on his heel to watch Thor catch up to Sif. “Have...fun.”

But Thor was already out of earshot.

“A shame,” tutted Ikol, fluffing up his feathers. “Seems he has more important things to do than spend time with you. What is this, the second time he’s rescheduled?”

The Boy had glared up at the ceiling, not giving Ikol the satisfaction of correcting “second” to “fourth,” but Ikol was satisfied all the same.

_ Was  _ satisfied.

_ Buzz _ .

Had been satisfied.

_ Buzz _ .

Why did he say that? It was such needless cruelty, one of many that his pesky conscience enjoyed parading out at inopportune moments these days.

_ Buzz. Buzz _ .  _ Buzz--clack _ .

Loki shoved his face into a throw pillow and blinked, clearing the image of the Boy’s liquid eyes that seemed to be permanently burned into his own and returning to his apartment and the Mystery of the Buzzing. Glancing at the floor from the comfort of his Ikea couch (which he had assembled sans magic, thank you very much), he fumbled for his phone, which had fallen off the coffee table. A stream of texts filled the screen, and Loki smirked at the increasingly agitated messages.

He rolled onto his back, flipping a shock of dark floppy hair from his eyes and scrolled up to read from the beginning.

L: Need a favor.

BK: Loki?!??

BK: Why is your number in my phone?   
BK: How did you get MY number???

BK: No one has heard from you in months what the hell???

BK: Dude if you don’t respond I’m gonna text America comE ON

Loki propped himself up on the arm of the couch and swept his fingers across the keyboard.

L: Cheater.

BK: Sneaky weirdo. What do you want?

L: U know that nerd game u play?

BK: …

L: Sorry, should b more specific, the 1 with the dice.

BK: ……...

L: And dungeons. Dragons?

BK: ...Dungeons and Dragons?   


L: That’s the one! Teach me how 2 play.

BK: What??? You completely cut us off and THIS is the favor you call in?

Letting out a huff of frustration, Loki closed out of the messaging app and opened his contacts.

“Please.”

“Hey, old man, no one calls people anymore.” Billy Kaplan’s voice was just as agitated as his texts, and Loki smiled as he imagined the young sorcerer pacing around his bedroom. “You know, just a pro tip in case you were trying to find another team of people a thousand years younger than you to join.”

“I’m bringing it back, trendsetter and all that.” Loki swung his legs off the couch and considered his mismatched socks. “And depending on how you look at it, I’m really only--”

Billy cut him off with a snort. “ _ Loki _ .”

“Come on Master Kaplan, I thought you  _ wanted _ us to play? Never shut up about it, as I remember.”

“One, that’s not true, there were a  _ ton _ of other games you refused to play--”

“Yes well some of us have reputations to consider.”

“You remember that you’re asking me for a favor, right?”

Loki sighed. “Right. Sorry, you were saying about my ability to spoil all kinds of sports...?”

“That’s the understatement of the century but whatever,  _ two _ , what favor do you even have to call in?”

Closing one eye, Loki inspected his nails. The polish on one of them was chipped. Must fix that.

“I think I’ve saved your life enough times to warrant this  _ one _ favor.”

“Oh, you mean the life that  _ you _ put in danger in the first place?” Billy’s voice was dry, and Loki winced.

“I was rather hoping you wouldn’t remember that part. Fine, I would owe  _ you  _ a favor.”

“Hard pass, I imagine a favor from you is like consequence roulette. I’m not ending up with, like, a million deer in my house or a hundred years in the future or with everyone I know forgetting me, no thanks.”

“I’m not a genie, William,” said Loki, feathers ruffled. “I was thinking more of a ‘buy you coffee’ or ‘make student loans disappear’ trade-off.”

“Please don’t kill a loan officer in my name,” said Billy in a slightly panicked voice. “That would really wreck my day.”

Loki let his head loll back on his neck. “I’m not going to--does everyone forget that I’m an actual prince from an actual royal family? I have money!”

Billy sighed again, and Loki heard him tossing something (Clothes? Books? The weight of his own responsibility?) around.

“Look, I know you’re super old--”

“Well  _ really _ only about--”

“ _ But _ ,” said Billy, interrupting Loki’s interruption. “I know you know that the internet exists. So why come to me for something you could just google yourself?”

Loki shrugged. “Always better to get a first hand opinion from a fr...from someone you know.”

He heard the creak of a mattress as Billy sat down. “I never would’ve pegged you for a game that involves, you know, teamwork.”

“It’s...Thor wants to play. Sort of forcing me into it, actually.”

“And here I thought being asked how to play D ‘n D by a former supervillain would be the biggest surprise of today, honestly, bravo,” said Billy.

“Former?” asked Loki with a grin.

“Well, we’ll see,” said Billy, his eye roll practically auditory. “Who knew your brother was such a nerd?”

“Believe me, he’s not,” said Loki, rubbing his forehead. “He didn’t ask me, I asked, well not  _ I _ , he...the previous...er…”

Billy shifted on the other end, and when he spoke next it was in a careful voice. “Oh. Right.”

Shame and a screaming conscience were white noise for Loki at this point, and he pressed on. “Anyway, Thor’s like one of his goats when he gets an idea in his head. I think he feels guilty about giving...him...the brush awhile back, and now he won’t let it go even though I have a million more important things to be doing than playing make-believe. But you know how brothers can be.”

Loki tried to keep his voice light and tone inconvenienced, but he noticed that the nails of his free hand were digging into his knee so hard that they had torn small holes through his jeans.

Silence stretched between the pair before Billy let out a long breath. “5E is going to be more your style. Less of an emphasis on rules and strategy, more of an emphasis on improv and story-telling. I can text you a few good places to start.”

“Lovely. Let me know what you want in return, and I--”

“This one’s on the house. Former-teammate discount.”

“Oh, I--thank you,” said Loki, unnerved by the slight pang of nostalgic fondness that crept into his voice, “This experience was far less humiliating than I feared.”

Loki could hear Billy’s grin through the phone. “Speaking of humiliating, I hear you tried to hook up with David on New Year’s. Emphasis on ‘tried.’”

“Lies and slander, as if anyone could resist this shiny new packaging.” Loki stretched and pushed back his hair. “Speaking of which, tell Teddy I say hello.”

“Hey man, full offense, but if you go near my boyfriend again I’ll hex your ass to Jupiter,” said Billy in a cheerful voice. “Anyway, you bringing the whole chaotically aligned thing to your character or looking to mix it up? I’d honestly pay money to see you play lawful, like god help whoever your...wait, who in the multiverse  _ did _ you have to trick, threaten, or kidnap to DM for you?”

  
“Oh, didn’t I mention?” asked Loki, cracking his neck. “ _ I’m _ the DM.”


	2. Pizza and Prep

The offer (much like his brother himself, more often than not) had come out of thin air.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Loki, raising an eyebrow at Thor as his brother furrowed his brow at the television. “Thor, stop you’re going to break--”

“First of all,” said Thor, not taking his eyes away from the dueling characters on the screen even as his grip on the controller caused the plastic to creak ominously. “I _have_ played one of these before, you don’t need to keep watching me like I’m a child. Besides, didn’t you magic all of this anyway?”

Loki winced as a particularly enthusiastic button mash cracked the casing. “That’s beside the point, it’s still my--”

“Second of all,” said Thor, ignoring the fractured controller and continuing to play. “Did you think I _forgot_ that you asked me to play?”

“Yes, actually. What’s it been? A year, year and a half?” Loki darted his character into the sky for a combo then let out a huff of frustration when Thor dodged it.

Thor rolled his eyes at the screen, but Loki could see the guilt. He was very good at that these days.

“Aye, and I am...sorry. But it was important to you, so I am here to fulfill my promise.”

“It’s really not that big of a deal,” said Loki, hoping that Thor would just drop something for once. “A silly game, really, you’ve fought your way through enough real dungeons that imaginary ones can’t hold much appeal.”

Thor frowned, still not looking away from the game. “Loki, it was important to you then, which means it’s important to me now, and I--”

“Yes, you’ve always had exemplary timing.” Loki grinned as he knocked Thor off the level. “Game goes to--”

With a flick of his thumb, Thor sent his character soaring back up to land a devastating blow on Loki’s character’s head. The screen flashed victory in favor of Thor, who tossed his controller onto the coffee table and clasped Loki on the shoulder (Loki had to remind himself not to flinch, that this was them now).

“I _want_ to play,” finished Thor, ignoring Loki’s interruption and giving the shoulder a squeeze.

Loki, still bristling from the loss and the broken controller, narrowed his eyes at Thor and shrugged out of his hold. “What’s the catch?”

“I don’t need an excuse to…” Thor trailed off when Loki, not dropping his accusing stare, lowered his chin. “Alright, but just keep in mind that I _do_ actually want to play. Mother--”

Loki closed his eyes and let his head loll back against the couch cushions in an attempt to disguise his sharp flash of anger at the word ‘mother’. “ _Dammit_ Thor, are you serious?”

“She wants us to spend time together!”

Loki gestured between the game and them. “What do you call this?”

“ _All_ of us.”

“Balder going to Skype in from Hel, is he?”

Thor winced. “Er...all _living_ children of Odin.”

That sent Loki’s mouth snapping shut. He blinked at Thor then slowly held out his hands. “You want me to invite Angela…”

“Yes.”

“Our homicidal sister who has tried to kill both of us…”

Thor waved his hand. “You used to do that all the time.”

“And who _hates_ us…”

“It’s really mother and father she hates, I believe she’s indifferent to us.”

“Here.”

“Well she won’t come to Asgard.”

“To my house.”

“That you magicked into being.” Thor grinned. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“ _Thor_.”

“ _Loki_.”

The two stared at each other, Loki, eyebrows raised, Thor, winning smile still in place, for a moment before Loki rubbed his eyes.

“She’s not going to want to play a game like this. You know that, right?” _I_ barely want to play a game like this, Loki added internally.

“She will,” said Thor, reaching for his beer and relaxing into the couch. “Want to go another round?”

Loki, mildly impressed, stared at him as Thor grabbed his controller once more. “You already asked her.”

“Er...yes.” Thor shot Loki another grin. “So really we’re just waiting on you.”

“And what are you paying her for this service?” asked Loki with a snort as Thor tossed him his controller. “‘Nothing for nothing’ and all that.”

“I’m paying her both by keeping our parents away from her for a year and by supplying the alcohol. Come on, brother, don’t make a liar of me. I’m nowhere near as talented as you.”

Loki’s stomach twisted at the obvious eagerness in Thor’s request, at the warmth in his expression. Gods, he hadn’t looked at Loki that way in...a long time. He reached for his own beer as memories of a thousand afternoons spent playing a thousand games flickered across his mind. Of the days before Thor swanned off to Earth to play hero and left Loki to twist himself into a different role just to keep up.

 

Which is how he ended up dangling upside down off his couch, pizza in one hand, a knee-deep in a mountain of Billy Kaplan Approved™ reference materials below, on a Saturday night.

“Sooo…” Verity dragged out the word until Loki, eyebrow raised, looked over from his pile of papers and books. “Are you, like, excited?”

“No comment.”

Verity leaned forward with a grin as he continued to page through the thick manual propped up on his stomach. “Is this ‘no comment’ because you were going to say ‘no’ and you don’t want me to know that it was a lie or because you were going to say ‘no’ and don’t want me to know it’s the truth?”

Loki frowned at her. “I get one ‘no comment’ a month, please respect the bargain.”

Holding up her hands, Verity shook her head. “No, you’re right, sorry, sorry. Prep looks like it’s going…”

“Going..?”

“I was going to leave it at ‘going’. Really, I’m surprised you’re doing all this work.” Verity picked up two heavy reference books then dropped them with a shake of her head. “Figured you’d just wing it.”

“You can’t break the rules if you don’t _know_ the rules,” said Loki, reaching blindly for another slice of pizza. “There’s method to chaos, dear Verity.”

Verity stared in disgusted fascination as he slowly and deliberately shoved the entire slice into his mouth. “You’re a father.”

“Isn’t that wild?” he said, grinning at her with his mouth still full.

She snorted and and pushed to her feet. “Well, I’ll get out of your hair. Unless you want me to stick around? Roll some dice or whatever?”

“As tempting as that is, I feel that your perpetual Zone of Truth would drain this lying game of what little fun it has to offer,” he said, briefly glancing up at her as she slid her shoes back on.

“Oh no, it’s already starting,” said Verity with a wicked smirk. “Well, our friendship was fun while it lasted. I better escape before I get Nerd on me.”

“Right, I forgot that you have a thrilling night of watching Wheel of Fortune by yourself ahead of you,” he called as she trotted out the door, flipping him off as she went.

She poked her head back inside. “Honestly though, text me if you need reinforcements.”

He shook his head and finally pulled himself right-side up. “Texts won’t be necessary, just keep an eye out for falling stonework as the building starts crumbling around you.”

“I appreciate the warning,” she said, shooting him a reassuring smile before closing the door behind her.

Loki let himself slide off the couch and onto the pile. Verity _did_ have a point, he was putting an awful lot of effort that could otherwise be spent trying to cobble together enough goodwill to protect him should the Allmothers’ insurance ever become public into a silly human game. And why? Because his brother asked him to? Because he still couldn’t shake his own guilt? Because he liked the novelty of his family actually wanting to spend time with him?

He didn’t answer Verity’s question because he didn’t _know_ the truth, and if that truth happened to be that his participation in this little act of sibling bonding was purely to maintain his own cover, well...that was a truth he would rather not face.

Not yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: the first game.


End file.
